Stephen W. Baird

President and Chief Executive Officer, Baird & Warner

He serves as chairman of The Realty Alliance — a consortium of the nation’s top real estate firms — and has testified before the U.S. Congress on matters of vital interest to the real estate community. In addition, he has long worked for the preservation of open space as past-president of CorLands, The Openlands Project and, currently, as a national board member of the Trust for Public Land. He holds memberships in the World Presidents Organization, the Chief Executives Organization and the Commercial Club of Chicago. He serves as a trustee of the Morton Arboretum and has recently been appointed to the boards of Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) and the local advisory board of US Bank. He also was selected by Fortune Small Business Magazine as a “Best Boss” for 2004.

A 1975 graduate of Harvard University, Baird remains active in the Harvard community. He serves as the national chairman for the HAA Schools and Scholarship Committee and is the co-chair of the Harvard Schools Committee in Chicago, which interviews applicants for admission. Baird earned his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business Management in 1985, and also serves as a director of that school’s Alumni Board.